Latest / Coaches Corner / MBB Coach Dan Hurley - Nov 5

Transcript

MBB Coach Dan Hurley - Nov 5 · Coaches Corner

• 0:03
  I know my father Celtic on the side, and so yeah, insulted for
• 0:10
  that. Well I'm a next for that, but I like the Celtics,
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  so you have good text. Yeah help the wise. I think, uh,
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  you know, the healthiest that we've been. I think, uh,
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  you know, the you know, Donovan looks has looked good. Yeah,
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  he should be available tomorrow as long as we have no setbacks between now and
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  when he wakes up tomorrow. But he can't sit still, so we'll see.
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  But he has some good work this week, so I know he's feeling
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  good. And uh, I think the other team's run the obviously start the
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  season is bringing him back incrementally some kind of the plan or yeah, I
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  think let's just listen to the doctors and you just trust, uh you know
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  that it just feels great that the foot is uh, it's a non issue,
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  and now it's about the cardio and not just managem and make a choice.
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  There we go with it a fact wire you're starting him tomorrow or even
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  put I have never really even thought about it, cause we were just you
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  know, Samson's been you know, Samson's been you know, maybe the you
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  know, the the most productive player in the in the close scrimmage work.
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  So we've just been really evaluating Bonovan the whole week and haven't even having it
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  sounds strange with haven't even talked about that. What do you want accomplish?
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  Moment all we starts winning, just winning, just winning and and uh establishing
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  our identity with this team and show the work that we've put in since June,
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  just how hard we've worked and how our focus has been on this opener
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  and playing you know, a good mid major team with shooting and for good
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  front court players. And but just to to show that you know that we've
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  can with how hard we play, how connected we are, just to show
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  how hard you were work heading into tomorrow. How well do you think this
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  group is looking chemistry wise? I think the it's different. You've lost an
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  incredible unifier and Andrea, and just an incredible lead by example, a guy
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  in a Madama, And I think, yeah, I think you start growing
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  into those leadership positions when you know when the real bullets start flying and and
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  things get uncomfortable and you start dealing with difficult circumstances. And that's I think
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  where leaders get they get made. So I make you remind you of kind
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  of have a rotation or is it kind of kind of go and field who
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  comes off the bench. Yeah, I think we've got a pretty good idea
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  of how we want to do it in terms of not having too many freshmen
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  on the court at the same time, if possible, and trying to support
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  them with older players and you know where we're solo fits and hassan trying to
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  kind of break those things up just so that you you don't have a group
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  on the court that is making it tough on each other. What did Tim
• 3:19
  Russo contribute to your program last year? Tim? You know, just uh
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  added to the culture and you know, just a really really hard worker and
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  uh just did a great job for us anything that we asked him to do,
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  and really really well liked and well respected here. And you know he's
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  uh, I think he's had a great career in getting this game on the
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  schedule. I'm not sure I uh, we tried to find somebody worse for
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  the opening. Does this put the final stamp on the celebrations of last year?
• 4:00
  You know, you have, I know that's over. I what We've
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  tried to just minimize our role in Tomorrow night as much as possible with clothes
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  that Nike wants us to wear and participation in the in the unveiling, I
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  don't want to sound bigger and grateful, but the last thing that any of
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  us are thinking about is the banner. That's for the students, that's for
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  our fans, that's for the familys of the players that are here from last
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  year's team. But there's a whole new team and just I not even right.
• 4:43
  We've had our banner, been looking at it the whole time. How
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  talented is this team offensively? I think we got a chance, hopefully,
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  you know, to to weather some your defensive issues with young players by being
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  a better offense then last year in terms of, you know, hopefully making
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  the fresh shot just fielded. We've got people that could drive the ball,
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  we got people that could post the ball. We've got good ball screen players.
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  We've got three court shooters. We could play with pace, and we
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  have a lot of different things that we haven't run in the past that are
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  in uh that we've were working on since June. So you know, we're
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  we're we're ready. I think I think we're ready to go. What have
• 5:27
  you enjoyed the most about the combination of the possibilities of all King Tristan is
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  fun and say back, Yeah, just having cam and interesting with the freshman
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  is comforting. Just just just to really trying to help with with the growth
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  and the growing pains. Stuff's really talented and uh, those guys are one
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  the real veterans. So guess they've had a couple of big brothers out there
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  that we've a freshman. How do you kind of handle that? You go
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  five we guys, I mean, you know the guys people slack, so
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  how are you kind of handle their mistakes? Yeah? You we've managed you
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  know, the good freshmen we've played, you know, and they've contributed a
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  lot, and the freshmen that aren't quite as ready either wait their turn or
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  what they leave. But I can't compromise, uh, you know, our
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  ability to function and can coach you know, coach scared or coach up tight.
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  Really talented players step more leeway and guys with lots of abilities and you
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  just manage it game to game for the Weston and Alex had rave reviews for
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  for Donovan the past week because he looked pretty pretty good in practices. Yeah,
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  he's he's physically he's looked great obviously changed the game changer, and I
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  think something that we've struggled with, you know, some some rim riom defense,
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  you know, both internally and then any close stuff. So they definitely
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  change his things with that into the court and even offensively too. It just
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  has such a he can help you in so many ways. I mean,
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  it's it's surprising, but the game comes easy to Donovant. It's just about
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  conditioning and rust. A lot of your offense last year went through a doma.
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  Will that be the case with Donovan to this year? I think you
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  use him in different ways obviously, you know, you could use use him
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  in the paint as as a post up player. You could you could also
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  play him out in space like a seven to two quarterback because he can really
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  pass and he's really good in the ball screen game an he runs any roles,
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  so you know he's uh. I think he's a really verse lot.
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  That's a player I have really all right, I give you five seconds,
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  uh, just with with Donovan when he comes back, was it can sort
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  of like a plug and play thing with stands. How much different I guess
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  are they both from how much the practice different? With the persip I think
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  we we put a couple of different things in the last couple of days with
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  the Donovan his health being where it is and that we had all the stuff
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  that we were doing with Sam. There's definitely different packages for both. Both
• 8:20
  guys canseerre but I I just it's uh to have two centers right now that
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  are that like we have. I think it's a it's exciting going to the
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  game when you expect themselves. I mean he hasn't had a lot of game
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  time over his career, so mean what what do you expectation? Yeah,
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  you know, he he's been a part of a program that's uh, that
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  won a national championship. And I think when you're in a program, uh,
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  you know that that's reached the pinnacle and the sport during an organization of
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  coaches and players and managers and you know, you you you kind of can
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  drift off that confidence that the group has that you know, we've we've played
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  in front of seventy five thousand people and they asked home and played the great
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  and won it all. So like shouldn't be any nerves, you know,
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  like we played and coach at Yukon, like we played in the biggest spots
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  as a program when we didn't blink and we executed brilliantly. So and we've
• 9:16
  worked our ass left since June. That's where the confidence comes from, just
• 9:20
  putting in that work and put in so much work just playing Samson and Donovan
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  come later on down the line, once you figure out what you can do
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  with each of them individually. Yeah, yeah, we'll not out at that
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  point, you know, especially just get Donovan back where where I could start
• 9:35
  answering those are don and donnovant questions like I did last year. I look
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  forward to not then it's gonna be one of the highlights. And and this
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  is you know, I'm probably gonna get it even more because of Samson's fluid
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  movements. I can't wait, But not this week. Yeah, I think
• 9:56
  you got you. We've got big guards, so we could play four guards.
• 10:03
  That's I mean, basketball has gone pretty positionless. It's all about having
• 10:05
  a bunch, you know, having some six four six five six six six
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  seven perimeter people around the center that you can play interchangeably anyway. So yeah,
• 10:13
  you've got your You've got Jaden Ross, you know, Steph could guard
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  four men. You've got Stu. Who's Stu's starting to you know, make
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  strides, apostles could go over there, you know, so imagine one of
• 10:26
  the taller lineups in the country, Stefan a tryst In, You've got we've
• 10:31
  got big guards and that certainly helps in terms of length, and when you're
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  playing a really uh, a really good three point shooting team like we are
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  tomorrow in McLaughlan, uh in your length, you know, it's it's it's
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  uh, you've got to be able to guard the line in the length and
• 10:48
  the aflanticism definitely helps. Do you take a lot of pride and involving as
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  a as a coach and now working on that offensive side of the game when
• 10:56
  you've been so intense and defensive minded. Yeah, yeah, I do.
• 11:01
  But you know, I just think every off season you're you're trying to get
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  better in some ways, and you know, for us, for me this
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  year, it's you know, showing maybe more poise and not getting as quite
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  as emotional as I did at times in the past, trying to manage the
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  game a little bit, better manage myself better, doubt losing the fire,
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  because the fire is what the players like, and the fire is what uh,
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  you know, it's a little bit of gas in the engine, so
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  you know, defensively being a little bit be able to get away from some
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  things we've done in the past and make some adjustments and got into the court
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  too. You seem like a chip on the shoulder going after this year.
• 11:43
  Yeah, I think you do just every year here. It's just maybe it's
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  just the people that we all have together here. We just we love basketball,
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  you know, you only I mean you come to stores Connecticut. It's
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  a great university, world class, no doubt. But h you go play
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  ball here or coach here. You're about ball, you know. And this
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  is uh, this is what we're here for this next five months that we're
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  about to go and and and then try to do something special. Thanks too,
• 12:13
  Thank you. Thank